In retrospect: the Ewoks... what was George thinking?

Ok I'm not starting this thread for the sole purpose of bashing the Ewoks, but really, what got George into putting the Ewoks in ROTJ?

Sure they're cute cuddly bears who provide a nice sense of comical relief (or sadness.. corpsy the ewok ) but they make the Emperor look like a fool! Palpatine claims that he has a legion of his best troopds on the forest moon, yet their laser-protective armor (which btw, has never protected them against lasers ) is being pierced by simple arrows and their helmets dont even resist the impact of a stone dropping from above, cos they all fall down dead.

The original idea here was Wookiees. Why no Wookiees? How is it more difficult to get a bunch of big men to play the Wookiees than getting a bunch of midgets and kids to play the Ewoks.

Really, they take away the credibility of the story for me. Couldn't George have handled this differently?

 

He wanted a race of low-tech creatures because he was interested in Vietnam-like stories where a low-tech society fights off a more advanced one.

He said that Chewbacca had established that Wookies were good with technology, so he "cut the Wookies in half" and came up with Ewoks.

 

Ha Ha Ha....cut a wookiee in half....hilarious....

 

I think it also gets us to think about the way things appear and how they actually are. In the case of the Ewoks, yes, they LOOK like cuddly, cute, furry teddy bears, something you would want your little child to snuggle with. Instead, they are a fierce tribe of warriors, living off the land and showing no mercy to their enemies. Just because they look like teddy bears doesn't mean they are harmless creatures.

Isn't one of the big tenets of Star Wars not to judge things by the way they look (i.e. the Millenium Falcon-looks like a piece of junk but is in reality a mighty starship, Yoda at first appears to be a senile little gnome but is in reality a powerful Jedi Master, the Emperor looks like a shrivelled up old man but in reality can electrocute you with a thought, etc.)?

BTW, why does everyone single out Corpsey the Ewok? Don't forget Pancake the Ewok (his glider was shot down and then he got stepped on by an AT-ST), WWF Ewok (bodyslammed by a stormtrooper), and Shrapnel the Ewok (blown almost head over heels by an explosion).

 

ok no but really... we're talking Imperial Hardware and a legion of elite stormtroopers... yet the ewoks win...

ok granted the way they brought down the AT-STs looks like it really could work but I'm still bothered with how they bow-and-arrow the stormtroopers down...

 

I forgot where I read this, but it's cool. Reverse the syllables in Wookie and you get e-wook. Which sounds like Ewok. He cut the wookie in half and reversed the name.

 

It may be taboo, but I actually like the Ewoks.
They're facinating from a anthropological viewpoint. They appear to be primitives by wearing shabby clothes and wierd feather/bone jewlery. But, they built a truly masive city in the trees that shows a tremendous grasp of engineering/architecture. These "primitives" have also discovered and understand the principles of areodynamics and flight.
They seem nice and friendly, but they were moments away from roasting a very alive and obviously sentient Han for some dinner.
Ewoks have no advanced technology, but one is able to leap onto a speeder bike and instantly figure out how to work it, and work it well.
Sadly, they would have been exterminated when all the Deaths Star crap came falling out of orbit....

As for the Stormtroopers, the whole legion wasn't there. Remember this is the "back door", the front door is where most of the troops were. (Now why the Empire felt the need to build a back door, I don't know) Rocks of that size, thrown from that height, will incapacitate anyone. Armor stops projectiles from penetrating, but the blunt force is still transfered. And the troopers seem to regroup and recover from the ambush fairly quickly. It's only moments before the troopers are chasing the Ewoks through the forest.

 

"BTW, why does everyone single out Corpsey the Ewok? Don't forget Pancake the Ewok (his glider was shot down and then he got stepped on by an AT-ST), WWF Ewok (bodyslammed by a stormtrooper), and Shrapnel the Ewok (blown almost head over heels by an explosion). "



Pricless 4-LOM. Don't forget Rambo the Ewok, the one who recovers the stormtrooper's blaster.

 

Even taking into account that the Emperor's best troops were taken down by cuddly teddy bears, it makes far more sense for there to be Ewoks than Wookiees. The Empire is overconfident. Overconfident enough to build the Death Star shield on a planet with intelligentish life. It is not, however, stupid. Imagine the stupidity required to build the thing protecting your ultimate weapon on a planet with walking limb-ectomy machines. Now that would be a silly decision.

 

People forget that the Ewoks were getting their little butts burnt by the AT-STs until Chewie stole one (the battle was turning the Empire's way up to that point).

 

Maybe George had been raiding Carrie Fisher's "stash".

 

Even taking into account that the Emperor's best troops were taken down by cuddly teddy bears, it makes far more sense for there to be Ewoks than Wookiees. The Empire is overconfident. Overconfident enough to build the Death Star shield on a planet with intelligentish life. It is not, however, stupid. Imagine the stupidity required to build the thing protecting your ultimate weapon on a planet with walking limb-ectomy machines. Now that would be a silly decision.

Wookiees would make ideal slaves. Imagine Chewie leading an uprising of his people. I love RotJ, but the ground battle could have been so much more than what we actually got...

 

Well, he obiously did't think. Or if he did, he thought about the money.

I still laugh everytime Palpatine says to Luke "I have entire legion of my best troops on the moon" or something like that... Yeah, sure. Best troops, a legion of them, and they get beat up by teddy bears with sticks and stones.

 

Well, yes. Wookiees would be very good for building the shield, but it was already built. And the Death Star was in vacuum, so life forms aren't best suited to help build it directly, it'd have to be machines. And they may as well be operated by Imperials. So, I still think it's silly to have wookiees as a security risk, but without the perks of actually needing their physical strengths.

 

Allright, I need to interject here
I'm so tired of everyone bashing the Ewoks
okay, so what if they are cute and small etc?

nobody says a word about the Jawas or Yoda or the ugly pig creatures on Bespin in ESB

and I bet you if GL HAD put Wookies instead of Ewoks, that then everyone would be complaining that it takes away from Chewie's individuality, and seriously, how annoying would it be to hear nothing but a bunch of "argghhssgghhss!" from a moon full of Wookies?

Personally, I think GL had the right idea with the Ewoks, showing how the underdog can overpower evil by fighting for good and justice
In essence, the Ewoks were very much Rebels and belonged alongside the Rebellion

I'm sure I'm not gonna make many friends with my post here, but ROTJ being my favorite SW installment, I just had to voice my support for it and the Ewoks

 

You guys forget, the Ewoks were going to BURN ALIVE and EAT Han, Luke and Chewie.

Not so cute and cuddly anymore, are they?

 

Exactly.

 

Lucas:
The Wookiee planet that I created for Star Wars was eventually turned into the Ewok planet in Jedi. I basically cut the Wookiees in half and called them Ewoks! I didn't make Endor a Wookiee plant because Chewbacca was sophisticated technologically and I wanted the characters involved in the battle to be primitive. That's why I used Ewoks instead. - Extract from The Annotated Screenplays (Laurent Bouzerou), 1997

 

I always remind people that the Ewoks were losing the battle until Chewie hijacked the AT-ST. That was the turning point on Endor. The Stormtroopers were holding their own until then.

 

GL was obviously thinking about the merchandising! Cuddly cute Ewok teddy bears sell better than ugly Wookie dolls!

 

He obviously thought that the flaws in the Ewok costumes wouldn't 'read' on film. Every hand and foot was molded individually, every face was designed and scultpted individually. It was the best solution to him at the time. I think the Ewok costumes are an appalling mistake for GL - the one moment when his viusal sensabilties abandoned him. It's a given that that sort of 'bear suit' never looks good on screen. Oh well. But I still like the Ewoks.

 

Allright, I need to interject here
I'm so tired of everyone bashing the Ewoks
okay, so what if they are cute and small etc?

nobody says a word about the Jawas or Yoda or the ugly pig creatures on Bespin in ESB

and I bet you if GL HAD put Wookies instead of Ewoks, that then everyone would be complaining that it takes away from Chewie's individuality, and seriously, how annoying would it be to hear nothing but a bunch of "argghhssgghhss!" from a moon full of Wookies?

Personally, I think GL had the right idea with the Ewoks, showing how the underdog can overpower evil by fighting for good and justice
In essence, the Ewoks were very much Rebels and belonged alongside the Rebellion

I'm sure I'm not gonna make many friends with my post here, but ROTJ being my favorite SW installment, I just had to voice my support for it and the Ewoks

Ok, really... besides robot dealers, what do the Jawas do? They don't waste entire legions of stormtroopers... they get slaughtered themselves. Jawas are just tiny ppl... thats it...

Yoda is believeable because he doesnt go about beating the Emperor to his head with his cane... he's actually the most powerful force user of the Jedi at that point and I don't think his looks have anything to do with that... plus yoda realises who he is and what people think of him "judge me by my size, do you?"

The ugnaughts on Bespin are just involved in the mining and the maintenance of technical equipment... they don't fight... even worse, in Jedi Outcast they make for excellent target practice...

But the Ewoks? I just CANNOT get my mind around the idea that bows and arrows are taking stormtroopers down...

 

Ewoks are cute, until they murder you and feast on your flesh.

 

I don't recall the Ewoks taking out ANY Imperials with their bows and arrows. In fact, there is only one Imperial that I remember who gets hit with an arrow and I only saw him in a widescreen edition of the film. He's a Biker Scout (with more exposed body parts than a stormtrooper) and he gets hit in the arm with an arrow.

The initial hail of arrows from the Ewoks did nothing more than confuse the Imperials, giving the rebels the opportunity they need to turn the tables on their captors. The Imperial bodies we see in the clearing once the stormtroopers run off into the woods after the Ewoks are not Imperials downed by arrows but Imperials downed by rebels kicking butt. The Ewoks seem to abandon their bows fairly quickly after that and rely on rocks and traps.

 

damn you idiots who still think their should have been a damn wookie planet! I think ROTJ is my favorite SW film, for many reasons. What pisses me off more than anything is when I hear any moron complain about the ewoks. PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET IT WITH THE EWOKS AND WHAT THEY REPRESENTED! having the ewoks in the return of the jedi showed the irony of this huge empire that was invincible fall to the most unlikely of people. if you seriously wanna think about it, the rebels had as much chance of winning as the ewoks did. but thats the irony of the story. thats the brilliance of it. too bad a lot of you people dont see that.

The Ewoks inhabit the land, yes they are primative but this is their land, they know their way around it. Compare the US to the Veitcong. Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam or Korea? Is it because they were better equiped?

The Empire being in the Ewok planet illustrates what is wrong with the Empire and why most everyone in the galaxy hates them. They practically took over thier planet, the Ewoks have a reason not to like them. They have motive to fight back.

About the booby traps, think about it, go to any jungle inhabited by humans, traps are all over the place, wheter it is to catch trespassers or other animals. The Ewoks probably had those things in place before hand.

They were sort of symbolic. The Ewoks just like the more advanced cultures in the galaxy had reason to hate the Empire and wanted to revolt. And finally, study history. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, etc. Look at the fall of any Empire, or any revolution. It happened because of people being opressed, the empire getting to big. Most of these revolution was accomplised by the "little guy." it was done by the underdogs. The Ewoks just show that.

Anyone who dares calls this a weak end to the trilogy is wrong. Screw ROTK, and the hell with all the people who wanted the wookie planet!